Debris is seen outside a damaged American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic after a bomb blast outside the building in Palm Springs, California, on May 17, 2025. A bomb blast outside a California fertility clinic killed one person Saturday, in what the US attorney general called an "unforgivable" attack. The blast ripped through downtown Palm Springs, badly damaging the clinic and blowing out the windows and doors of other nearby buildings. (Photo by Gabriel Osorio / AFP) (Photo by GABRIEL OSORIO/AFP via Getty Images)
New York, New York – Federal authorities have arrested a second suspect in connection with the deadly bombing of a fertility clinic in Palm Springs last month, marking a dramatic development in a case that officials have described as a rare act of domestic terrorism motivated by anti-natalist ideology.
Daniel Park, a 32-year-old resident of Kent, Washington, was taken into custody Tuesday night at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation. He is scheduled to appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon.
Park’s arrest comes more than two weeks after a powerful explosion outside the American Reproductive Centers clinic on May 17 killed the suspected bomber, 45-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus, and injured five others. The blast obliterated the front of the clinic, sending glass flying across the street and sparking panic among patients and staff. It also marked what one senior FBI official described as “possibly the largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California.”
Federal investigators had previously indicated they were probing whether Bartkus acted alone. According to officials, Bartkus left behind a 30-minute audio recording and a series of writings describing himself as a “pro-mortalist”—a person who believes that coming into existence is a harm, and that ending life, including one’s own, can be morally justified to prevent suffering.
In the recording, Bartkus expressed anger toward fertility clinics, which he said bring people into existence “without consent.” He described his decision to bomb the clinic as an attempt to strike at a system he believed was perpetuating suffering. “I’m angry that I exist,” he said in the tape, according to excerpts released by investigators. “Nobody got my consent to bring me here.”
Authorities have not yet disclosed the nature of Park’s alleged involvement. It is unclear whether he helped plan the attack, provided materials, or had other connections to Bartkus. Federal prosecutors expect to announce formal charges at a press conference in Los Angeles later this week.
The case has unsettled Palm Springs, a city known for its progressive politics and strong LGBTQ+ community, and raised concerns about a new form of ideological extremism rooted not in religion or nationalism, but in nihilism and anti-natalist thought.
The investigation remains ongoing.
